Despite the huge impact executives can have on their organizations, failure rates remain high. Prescriptions for what to do continue to fall short. So we wondered: If we closely studied the executives who succeed in top jobs once appointed, could we identify distinguishing features that set them apart and defined their success?
As part of our ten-year longitudinal study on executive transitions, which included more than 2,700 leadership interviews, we did a rigorous statistical analysis to isolate the skills of the top-performing executives. We isolated seven performance factors correlated to strong organizational performance as well as leadership strengths through IBM Watson’s content analysis tools as well as historical performance reviews of these leaders and their direct reports. These seven factors led to our discovery of four recurring patterns that distinguished exceptional executives.
Editor’s Note: Maybe it’s just me, but these four dimensions seem akin to saying the best track stars run really fast. I would also like to see more information about how one measures, in a meaningful way, differences in ability along these dimensions (I am unclear what the Watson content analysis tools are or can do).
Author: Ron Carucci
Source: Harvard Business Review
Subjects: Management, Personal Development
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